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"Nottingham has always had a history of gang violence and pulling away resources and support - youth clubs, youth work and a reduction in social services - is only going to bring that cancer back into the city.

"It is very important we deal with the root cause."

The Children's Commissioner said Nottingham was one of 25 areas deemed as high risk.

Nottingham City Council shared no information on the levels of gang activity and risk among children in their area as part of the report.

The commissioner said this does not necessarily mean a poor safeguarding response, but it does suggest a lack of leadership and coordination.

The city council said there was "a lack of clarity about what was needed" which indicated why only five of the 25 areas highlighted responded fully to the request.

A spokesman for the city council said: "As the report itself acknowledges, not responding does not mean that we and other agencies on the Local Safeguarding Children's Board are not actively focused on tackling these issues."

Leader of Nottingham City Council, Jon Collins

Councillor Jon Collins, leader of Nottingham City Council, said: "We are working closely with partner agencies, the voluntary sector and families to address serious youth violence and gang involvement in Nottingham.

"Given the high levels of child deprivation in Nottingham, our young people are at increased risk of becoming involved in youth violence, with all the hugely serious consequences we know that can bring.

"The huge cuts in government funding for councils have hit deprived areas like Nottingham the hardest, meaning there’s less we can do to address these issues."

Knives found in the Hyson Green, Radford and the Arboretum areas.

The report said some children have been recruited purely on their location.

The Commissioner said that once a child is within a gang "extricating them is very hard" as they are enticed with money and bribes, as well as threats, violence and intimidation.

They believe the county lines arm of the industry - where drug gangs go outside of their local area to expand their reach - is worth more than £500m alone.

Recruiting a gang member can begin with "giving of gifts or praise" followed by "protecting the child from some danger" and then by day five the child would be running an errand.

Knife recovered in Bestwood (Image: Nottinghamshire Police)

The gang would then arrange for the child to be mugged, where the money would be lost, and therefore they would be considered "in debt" and must earn their keep.

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Councillor Collins said: "Almost £500,000 that we received recently for extra support through community outreach activity and guidance in schools goes a small way towards helping.

"Beyond this, we are reshaping our play and youth services to better target young people at the edges of criminal and anti-social activity with the sort of provision that will engage and support them.

"We have brought together various council services including safeguarding, youth and community protection, to focus on young people most at risk of getting involved in youth violence.

"They provide wrap-around services that help to prevent this from happening and support if it does.

"We have established regular high-level meetings involving partner agencies to oversee this work and make sure everything is being done that can be done to protect our young people from becoming victims of criminal exploitation."

"Clearly when there is a major report like this we have got to look at it. We are working in partnership with the city council to keep kids out of trouble."

Ben Rosser is the founder of the Pythian club (Image: Nottingham Post)

Former police officer turned youth worker, Ben Rosser, founder of the Pythian Club, which brings kids from different postcodes together to play football, said the time to act is now.

He said: "We need positive action now. The time for talking and having meetings is done. The time is now. We are losing our young people.

"We need to engage young people on the street. We need to do good old fashioned street work. We need to get them involved in something different and it can be done. It won't happen overnight, it will take time."